Phusion Projects, known for its innovative and popular portfolio of alcoholic beverage brands, including Four Loko and Mamitas Tequila Seltzer, struggled to manage its formulas and flavors across multiple manufacturers and co-packers. Here’s how Phusion centralized formula and flavor data with the food and beverage-focused Dynamic FRM™ solution to enable ingredient tracking, streamline supplier management, and secure intellectual property.
Flavors, formulas, and brands are critical assets in the highly competitive alcoholic beverage business. They drive consumer tastes and preferences, impact sales, and can make all the difference in multi-point margin swings, good and bad. Which is why they need to be managed efficiently and securely.
Maria Vargas, procurement manager at Phusion Projects, an alcoholic beverage company based in Chicago, knows firsthand what it’s like when efficiency and security are lacking. Vargas and her colleague, global technical product manager Kyler Ransom, were recently tasked with shoring up Phusion’s formula management processes and controls.
“Our formula and ingredient data was spread out across our company, as well as across multiple outside vendors, which meant there wasn’t one source of truth for us for that information,” said Vargas. “The lack of traceability, security, and speed wasn’t good for our product management department or the overall company.”
Vital information was stored in multiple Excel spreadsheets and SharePoint folders, making finding and tracking updates and versions difficult. Manual processes for updating and verifying information also consumed time that could have been better spent on new product development and commercialization. “We were looking for a one-stop shop that could organize our formula documentation as well as our reference sheets all in one place,” Ransom said. “We were excited to find Dynamic FRM™ and put all our product data into one user-friendly platform.”
"I can’t say enough about how much time we’ve saved centralizing data and improving operational efficiency with Dynamic FRM. It has allowed us to
focus on more strategic initiatives like pushing boundaries and building brands driven by flavors and functional benefits."
Maria Vargas
Procurement Manager
Pains & Gains
Pains
Phusion Projects was managing its 50+ products and associated ingredients, formulas, and packaging using spreadsheets and SharePoint folders.
Versioning and search capabilities were limited and slowed down information sharing.
Ingredient usage, pricing, and supplier information were stored in multiple locations, causing problems with sourcing, new product development, and supply chain management.
Gains
Phusion selected Dynamic FRM™ for its flexibility and cost-effectiveness in bringing all product life cycle management functions into one searchable platform.
Quality control and ingredient management are enhanced with instant visibility to ingredient usage and impact across products.
New product development has improved with faster iterations, spec sharing, and pricing calculations.
Product Life Cycle Management: Organized and Made Easier with Dynamic FRM™
With 50+ products and multiple packaging versions, Phusion constantly updates formulas, ingredients, and suppliers to balance the ebb and flow of manufacturing, inventory, sales, and margin. Additional complexities unique to alcoholic beverages, such as alcohol percentages and barrel calculations—a standard unit of production—must also be tracked by product category, formula, and package.
“The nature of our business is that products change often due to improvements, ingredient availability, and cost control,” said Vargas. “And tracking those changes without a system like Dynamic FRM™ is difficult.” Managing products and brands across multiple contract manufacturers and suppliers also presents concerns around intellectual property protection and pricing confidentiality. Dynamic FRM™ enables access controls and audit trails that ensure suppliers receive only the information they need for their contracts.
“Centralizing control of our formulas has made it easier for us to share generic product specs, explore new production options, and obtain competitive bids without involving current producers and suppliers,” said Vargas. “It’s faster and more secure now.” Since going live with Dynamic FRM™, Phusion has experienced several key benefits, including:
- Improved Quality Control: With all product and ingredient data readily available, quality concerns can be addressed more swiftly. Vargas noted, “Whenever we have a question on quality, we’ve got the information at our fingertips instead of sifting through files and folders.”
- Enhanced Operational Efficiency: The search feature in Dynamic FRM™ has been particularly valuable in tracking supply chains and production. “It’s beneficial to see where ingredients are used at a glance and determine quickly how things might be impacted by scheduling or pricing
changes,” Vargas said. - New Product Development Speed: The ability to quickly create and test new formulas facilitates innovation and agility. “Having all those numbers and formulas with a lookup function has made things much faster,” said Ransom.
Ransom and Vargas emphasize one final and significant benefit: Value. They considered a variety of systems and ultimately selected Dynamic FRM™ for its price point and flexibility. “We didn’t find anything as customizable and cost-effective as Dynamic FRM,™” said Ransom. “And the New Dynamic team did a fantastic job with design and implementation; we were very impressed with their project management and accountability.”
Value for Vargas has been defined by convenience, and staying true to the Phusion culture. “I can’t say enough about how much time we’ve saved centralizing data and improving operational efficiency with Dynamic FRM™,” said Vargas. “It has allowed us to focus on more strategic initiatives like pushing boundaries and building brands driven by flavors and functional benefits.”
“The New Dynamic team did a fantastic job with design and implementation; we
were very impressed with their project management and accountability.”
Kyler Ransom
Global Technical Product Manager